School—Based Management
Only 50 percent of children with emotional and mental health needs receive the treatment necessary to address their concerns. These children and their families, even those who are stable and have relatively ready access to the resources they need, have a difficult time navigating the fragmented web of available services. One result is that these children can become at-risk for neglect and abuse. Spofford’s school-based case management program works together with area school districts to identify at-risk children early, and strengthen the social systems needed for their success.
How Our Program Works
Spofford’s school-based case management program is inherently flexible, adapting easily to any school district. It combines direct intervention in schools and homes with advocacy and facilitated access of available community resources.
To begin with, Family Resource Specialists at Spofford work with school personnel to identify and address social factors that contribute to school failure. These factors include, but are not limited to: alcohol and drug abuse; illiteracy; mental or physical illness; and very low household income. Such factors can create an unpredictable, unsupervised, chaotic, and/or dangerous environment for children.
Children from such environments show a variety of symptoms. They may become despondent, uninterested, disengaged, aggressive, or otherwise nonfunctional at school often leading to disciplinary problems and absence from the classroom.
The school-based case management program is a stabilizer that helps connect families to resources in the school and in the community and keep children in the classroom and engaged in the learning process.
Our Objectives
The objective of the school-based case management program is to afford children the greatest opportunity to achieve social and academic success, by reducing risk factors and increasing protections such that children can excel at home, school, and in their community.
Specifically, program outcomes are based on improved emotional and social success measured by multiple measures such as academic progress, reduction in disciplinary actions, reduction in intensity of disciplinary behaviors, improved attendance, and improved parental participation and engagement.
Spofford’s school-based case management program further demonstrates our commitment to the prevention of child abuse by building protective factors around children and families to foster healthy social and emotional child development.
